Jandek on Corwood (2003)

The documentary film Jandek on Corwood definitively explores the most intriguing mystery in modern music. Featuring revealing interviews, evocative imagery and one of the most bizarre and compelling soundtracks in film history, Jandek on Corwood will cha

Good documentary

So this is a documentary on the character that is Jandek, and for those that are unaware, Jandek is one of the most mysterious figures in music and has been for about the last 30 years.
The details of his life are barely known, kind of like his actual name, and somehow this man produces some of the weirdest, mostly atonal music every heard. Somehow Jandek has the ability to make every album sound like a suicide note.
As for the movie, it is a good documentary of the few people that has confirmed interviews with the man and about his music in general. If you are interested in the artist, then this movie is well worth picking up. Also it is good for modern music historians as well as a small chronical of his work and influence.
Check it out. May 6, 2008

Eternal navel-gazing of the Indie rockcrit...

The work of Sterling Smith, aka Jandek, the reclusive representative from Corwood Industries, is sadly miscast as "outsider art." This disc's positive elements stem mostly from the quality and consistency of Jandek's recordings over time; the soundtrack is strong. Unfortunately the endless line of talking heads act to its detriment; mostly scribblers with varying degrees of talent, literacy and knowledge of their field wax on about the purported mysteries of the man. Byron Coley stands out as entertaining and concise, with less tendency to myth-build; overall though, the sense of the work veers towards self-parody. The foolish practice of American rock journalists taking themselves far too seriously is the disc's main trope. I half-expected Anthony DeCurtis and Lou O'Neill Jr. to enter with prissy cameos damning the Texan's efforts.

Which is specious right off the bat since most of the commentators should know better. Jandek's main touchstone is Blind Willie Johnson's wordless masterpiece "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" from the late 1920's. Johnson was active in Beaumont, not far from Jandek's home base of Houston, and the company reissuing his works is named Yazoo ("river of death") after the legendary Mississippi waterway. Obviously there is much more going on in Jandek's albums, but the haunting, echo-drenched illusion of formlessness and sense of despair stems from here. Jandek is perfectly lucid in the one recorded interview with John Trubee; his main characteristic seems to be reticence.

Then again the whole notion of "outsider art" is facile, if not outright evil. Is there some gradient with which to weigh "errant" creativity? A checklist for disabilities? "This singer has Tourette's, that one has Epstein-Barr's, this one has OCD, that one's a homeless amputee"...there is something patently offensive about that. Four decades ago, Angus Maclise was "out there;" Hermann Nitsch was, and remains "out there." Jandek is a compelling and idiosyncratic songwriter, whose brand of lonesome bedroom blues is particularly distilled.

I wonder if the goofy pundits @ Spin and Option and RS would ever admit one possibility: that Mr. Smith listened to Hendrix and Zeppelin just like every other teenager in the 70's before establishing his own idiom. American rock critics prefer to minimize the impact of pop culture, to play down its homogenizing effects, which is what makes music like Jandek's seem more outre than it is. They also do it a disservice by marginalizing it with simplistic reductions and emphasizing, ad nauseum, the anecdotal negative reactions of their peers. So what? Shut up and listen. March 25, 2007

ARE YOU SERIOUS???

I watched this movie with a friend and laughed all the way through it. It was the most perfect spoof of "indie rock" imaginable. The movie is so ridiculously repetitive, like the music of Jandek, that my friend eventually insisted on turning it off. I was the only person he had watched it with who hadn't demanded him to turn it off. I honestly thought all of the people being interviewed were acting. How could they all say such unintentionally hilarious things? Even after seeing all of these albums listed on Amazon, I am still having a really difficult time believing that this whole thing isn't a joke. June 7, 2006

Some Mysteries Revealed

A great documentary for Jandek fans, although I don't think many who are not familiar with his music would appreciate this work. The bulk of the movie is interviews with music critics, but a surprise telephone interview with the eccentric and reclusive artist at the film's end answers some crucial questions. But the most important question is: do we really want to know anything about Jandek or do we want the mystery to continue? Sometimes knowledge lessens the allure. May 1, 2006

Negative Space

This documentary is now a part of the art of Jandek, whether you like it or not. Whether you like Jandek or not. By continuing to make music since 1978 to the present day, without allowing the outside world to know anything at all about him, Jandek creates his own mystery, his own story by allowing others to project themselves on to him. Add to that the rabid, adjective addicted, Lester Bangs 2nd generation of music critics who opine for anything to mythologize ... and you have a rock legend. The documentary gives you as much Jandek as you could can have, which is not very much. The entertainment is to be found in the lack of information, which merely encourages everyone to spin wild theories about Jandek. The more insane he is (he must be, right) the better. The documentary is also an example of negative space, because very few actual facts are presented. It asks one question: is art intention or interpretation? In Jandek's case, we only have interpretation. April 21, 2006

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